Teleological Argument

The teleological argument, also known as the argument from design or the physico-theological argument, is a rational argument for the existence of God, holding that the complex functionality visible in the natural world, which appears designed, is evidence of an intelligent creator. Early versions are associated with Socrates in ancient Greece, and Plato and Aristotle later developed the proposal that the cosmos has an intelligent cause, with the Stoics of the Roman era developing what became known as the argument from design in something close to its later form. Saint Thomas Aquinas included the argument as the fifth of his Five Ways of proving God's existence, and in 1802 William Paley gave the argument its most famous statement in Natural Theology, using the watchmaker analogy to argue that just as a watch implies a watchmaker, the intricate order of nature implies a designer. The argument has drawn sustained criticism since its beginnings, most importantly from David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion in 1779 and from Charles Darwin's account of biological complexity through natural selection in On the Origin of Species in 1859, and versions of it remain influential today, including in the intelligent design movement that emerged after Paley's arguments were rebranded in the late twentieth century.